As you might have guessed by the volume of coverage it’s getting here, I am thrilled that the ‘online influencer’ debate is heating up. Why? Because it gives me plenty of chances to tell smart companies like yours why it makes far more business sense to empower and embrace your existing evangelists.
If smartly done, targeting influencers has real business value. But it’s more for creating short-term buzz rather than sustainable growth. And even IF you do target influencers, it should often be done in conjunction with connecting with your company’s evangelists.
Here’s 5 reasons why I think it’s better to target evangelists rather than influencers:
1 – Evangelists don’t have to be paid, just acknowledged. You don’t have to pay customer evangelists to promote you, they are already doing that. And they aren’t doing it FOR the money, they are doing it because they love your company and believe in your products. So you reward them by acknowledging them. By pointing out who they are, and thanking them. All that does is validate their love in you, and it motivates them to promote you to even more people.
2 – Evangelists have a vested interest in promoting you to their networks. With influencers, you are trying to give them something, usually cash or a gift, in an effort to convince them to promote you to the network that they have influence over. But evangelists are already interested in promoting you to their networks. Think about it, when we have a product that we love, that we buy consistently, we tell others about that product, right? If you love your Honda, guess what happens when someone tells you they are in the market for a new car? You tell them how much you love your Honda.
I love this quote from Bill Samuels, CEO of Maker’s Mark on the philosophy behind his company starting a brand ambassador program (emphasis addded): “We enjoy talking to our customers one-to-one. It really is in our nature. We never worry about the fact that this is inefficient because we are only talking to 50 or 60 or a thousand or ten thousand instead of a million. Which you do when you try to slap everybody on the ass with an advertising message. Because we know that our next customers are going to come from their efforts, not from our efforts.”
3 – Evangelists can help you reach your target market. In their groundbreaking business book Creating Customer Evangelists, Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba had a wonderful quote that illustrates why evangelists are your best salesforce. They said “They know your target audience better than you because they are the target audience!” How efficient would it be to have a direct and uncluttered line to the exact customers you are trying to reach? That’s access that your evangelists have, and you have access to your evangelists. All you need to do is make the connection and reap the rewards.
4 – Evangelists will tell you what you are screwing up, then they will help you fix it. One of the big fears that companies have about social media is that they fear hearing criticism from customers. But evangelists are a different breed of customer. Whereas other customers might blog that ‘You suck!’, an evangelist will say ‘I think Company X got it wrong here. Here’s what they should have done.’ Evangelists may criticize, but they also offer solutions, and will help you IMPLEMENT their suggestions.
For example, my friend Melody is a HUGE Starbucks fan. And she has one of the more popular Starbucks blogs on the planet, devoted to the company she loves. Notice in this post, she reviews a new Starbucks drink, and explains that she’s not sure if ‘it will work’, then explains WHY she thinks this way. She gives Starbucks actionable feedback because she cares about the brand.
But notice something else: That post has *72* comments! Melody isn’t just blogging about her love of Starbucks, she has created a place where other Starbucks evangelists can gather and discuss the brand they love! Passion attracts passion, and it’s on display in the comments section of every post Melody writes. How valuable is the feedback that Melody and her readers leave via comments?
5 – Evangelists want to see you succeed. This might be the biggest misunderstanding that companies have toward evangelists. These people really do love your company, and they want to see it be as successful as possible. Why would you not do everything possible to embrace and empower these special customers?
To perfectly illustrate this point, I wanted to return to an example that Ben and Jackie shared in Creating Customer Evangelists. As you might recall after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the airlines industry was devastated, as were all the airlines. In October, SouthWest Airlines received a letter from one of its customers, Ann McGee-Cooper. In that letter, McGee-Cooper told SouthWest that “We are encouraging our clients to fly Southwest Airlines. We are buying more stock…and we stand ready to do anything else to help. Count on our continuing support.”
And McGee-Cooper included something with that love letter to Southwest: A check for $500. With the check came an explanation that McGee-Cooper understood that at that time, Southwest needed the money “more than I do”.
How amazing is that? This one example perfectly illustrates why evangelists are far more valuable to your company than influencers. And a perfect love story since this is Valentine’s Day 😉
So there’s 5 reasons why I think evangelists are better than influencers. If you would like to hire me to help your company use social media to connect with your online evangelists, click here to get more information, or email me so we can discuss your needs.
Wait…is your company looking for ways to create evangelists for your brand? Check back here tomorrow and we’ll show you how!
Mack,
Fantastic post and such an important message — for businesses of all sizes. And I agree — Creating Customer Evangelists is a must-read. It sits on my bookshelf in plain view from my computer.
Thanks for bringing this message back — it’s one we all need to hear again and again…
Dan
For 20 years I have pioneered and driven influencer…zealout…ambassador strategies to create or rebuild brands/categories. This smartly lays out the insight based rationale and direction for Evangelist mktg.
And btw, I was speaking in front of a large group and they said I was a mktg and innovation–now mobile/social EVANGELIST. What a nice compliment I thought.
Smart strategy that applies to every category…and mobile and social make it more important across friend groups and into their mobile lifestyles. Would love to chat more on this.
Patrick
[email protected]
TW patrick meyer
Hey Patrick. The great thing about social media is that it great amplifies the ability of customers to express themselves. Before, word of mouth was mostly locked in an offline setting where it was very difficult for companies to access. Now, social media has helped take that offline word of mouth, and bring it online, where companies can not only access that feedback, but connect more easily with customers.
Assuming they are smart enough to do this 😉
Thanks Dan. BTW have you read Citizen Marketers? It is a good read as well.
Mack,
Excellent post for clients looking for much smarter marketing strategies!
May I suggest perhaps strengthening reason #1 a bit to say that more than acknowledging your evangelists you should absolutely consider empowering them? I think gDiapers has done a remarkable job of this with their “gMum and gDad Community.” If you go to the Community page, moms and dads are given the encouragement and tools to spread the word about their love of the product in a variety of ways:
http://www.gdiapers.com/fair-dinkum/gdiapers-community/gmum
I think it’s an excellent example of going a step beyond loving your evangelists to empowering them – which is a win-win for the company and your enthusiasts!
Happy Valentine’s Day Mack,
@LisaPetrilli
Thank you Lisa! You are so right about the need to empower your biggest fans. I am going to be hitting on this theme all week, so I will incorporate that idea into future posts.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Lisa! I’m a HUGE gDiaper evangelist (and part of the gDad program…although I have not heard back from anyone there since signing up!). So, while empowered, I’m not sure what to do next.
“I would really like to know from the author where an influencer becomes an evangelist. Isn’t the conversion from influencer to a believer the main objective for all evangelists? [sounds a bit religious, but then again, marketing is like religion] Maybe we should give all evangelist a crash course in conversion and offer them an online piggy bank that stocks virtual conversion coins. They would at least go to heaven being virtually rich… ;)”
Hey Marcel, maybe my terminology was a bit confusing.
For the purposes of this post, an influencer is someone that companies want to target because they hope to convince them to promote their products/services/etc to their network.
An evangelist or customer evangelist is someone that’s an existing fan of a company, and is already promoting that company to their network. Studies have been done that show that evangelists DO increase sales.
The reason why companies are gaga over online influencers right now is the same reason they spend millions on Super Bowl commercials: Exposure. Companies want access to networks, and they will pay to get that access, whether it is via a Super Bowl commercial, or an online influencer campaign.
But as you said, having that awareness convert into sales or some other desired action is where the money literally is 😉
I agree with you Marcel!
At some point in the near future “Influencers” compensation will be tied to actually sales. No longer will the number of followers. or Klout Score make any difference. The jig is soon to be up, in short order, ones “influence” will be directly tied to how many widgets you can sell. That is simply how business works, as all of this fluffy nonsense makes no difference.
Marketing is and has always been about selling more stuff, to more people for more money. The basic rules of business will soon balance that fundamental law, even with social media.
Great post, and so true. Since starting out two years ago I’ve received the vast majority of my business from exuberant word of mouth. Former clients turned evangelists have done so much more to generate leads than any influencers I’ve managed to get the attention of.
It’s always awesome to have people so into your brand and products to see them more than willing to help your business improve and your user experience become truly unique.
I always cry a bit inside when I see brands discouraging this behavior in first place, like sending out Cease & Desist letters in case some fan posts some videos or criticism regarding some product or service. They fail to realize the difference between constructive criticism and disruptive one, effectively killing a potential Evangelist at his very birth.
Hi Mack! Thank you for the mention of my Starbucks blog! What a pleasant surprise. And now we have to talk serious stuff here: Mack what coffee do you have in your kitchen?
As you know, I have a lot of fun being a brand evangelist! There’s a lot of emotional reward in seeing a community come together online, and I get a great kick out of the times that Starbucks reaches out and invites me to special events, or the times they’ve let me go shopping in the partner store … heaven!!!
~Melody
LOL! Melody would you believe I never drink coffee? But I could drink a swimming pool of Dr Pepper, that’s my caffeine fix 😉
Well … evangelists are influencers. But influencers aren’t evangelists. I get your point. We need evangelists to preach the gospel. Me telling my friend how cool my iPod is will work order of magnitude better than an advertising campaign, not necessarily per capita, but for that friend.
Does that even make sense … ? You explained this way better than me.
Stink, I’ve been calling Mark all this time. Sorry about that, Mack. 🙂
Love this, Mack. As I mentioned in my reply to Lisa, I’m an evangelist for gDiapers. I love their product, their philosophy, their company, etc. I’m also an evangelist for Southwest and Hydro Flask. I just did a mini-“experiment” and googled “Hydro Flask DJ Waldow” – pretty sure the results say it all, huh?
You’ve got my wheels turning. Evangelists….
I took the bait DJ, you own that term 😉 What is Hydro Flask and has the company connected with you?
I love this post, Mack – especially when you said “Evangelists don’t have to be paid, just acknowledged” – that’s a very important point for brands to know and adhere to. When I’ve fallen in love with a brand and started gushing about it in my social networks, a simple “thank you” has gone very far with me. Last year when I fell in love with a location-based company that shall remain nameless here, I started Tweeting a lot about them and even wrote a blog post about them but they’ve never once acknowledged me. I didn’t set out to seek their acknowledgement but because they haven’t said a word to me, I stopped gushing. Unrequited love is a killer when it comes to us brand evangelists.
Amen! That “acknowledgement” goes a long way. Your “gushing” example is too perfect. I know that feeling, speaking one gusher to another.
~Melody
YES Lori! I completely understand about being a gusher, although I usually gush about people 😉 But the same thing is at play, if a brand gives me exceptional service, I want to reward that by telling all my friends.
I recommend Dell laptops to my friends, and it really has little to do with the quality of the products, but rather the quality of the people that work for Dell that I have met via social media.
Mack, I guess it comes down to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs…we all want to be accepted and respected.
Love this post Mack. Also, thanks for leaving a comment on my blog. It’s motivation to keep turning out more content!
http://kevinekmark.com/blog/2011/02/15/developing-a-dream-into-reality-with-blog-networks/
Nicely said Mack! Love the post. And thanks for all of the kinds words and pointers to our work : )
Instead of preaching or influence which is undoubtedly beautiful. But I feel more comfortable with what is called “share information” and if we could make a difference, so why not?